Managing pasture for animals and soil carbon

Abstract

There has been growing interest in including soil carbon (C) sequestration, as an offset to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, within New Zealand's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, even though national trends report soil C concentrations in many areas is declining. There are different schools of thought as to what drives changes in soil C (e.g. grazing management, fertiliser inputs, species) and so in our capacity to increase the rate of sequestration of C since 1990 to gain C credits.